Hello!
For the past couple of weeks, I have been gaining practical teaching experience for my studies, by working in a high school. It has been an interesting experience to say the least! It was amazing that of all the schools to be at, and of all the times to be there, I happened to be at Collegiate during their 150th birthday week. It was a whirlwind of a week but a lot of fun and great to see what happens behind the scenes.
Coming from an entirely Co-ed school upbringing, being in an all-girls’ school was a shock to the system. Although in the class the girls were no less rowdy, shoving in the passages was non-existent and, weirdly, the classes even smelt different! Not to mention how the hymns in assembly were like an angelic choir rather than an untuned, conductor-less orchestra.
In my few weeks at the school, I was allowed to teach a grade 10 Life Science (biology) class and a grade 9 Natural Sciences class. (For those who have been out of school for a few years Natural Science is biology, ecology, physics and chemistry rolled into one). For me, the biology, physics and ecology side of Natural sciences is fine. I was fairly confident I would be able to present well rounded and interesting lessons on these three sections. Chemistry is a different story. I despise the topic and avoided chemistry courses at varsity, at all costs. Guess which of the four topics the Grade 9’s were doing this term…
In God’s wicked sense of humour, He at least had some compassion. The topic the students covered in the three weeks I was there, was balancing chemical equations, which just so happens to be the only branch of Chemistry I am marginally confident in! I spent a week teaching how to work out what chemical compounds are made of and how to work out how much you need to make them, with varying degrees of success.
The irony was, the equations were the only thing I was able to “balance” during the three weeks! Between my lesson plans for the school, work for the youth groups and assignments that I had expertly procrastinated on till the last minute, I was on the go constantly. 4 hours of sleep in a night was luxurious.
At the same time, I was able to see just how much the teens get involved in at school and just how little time they actually have for family, friends and themselves.
And it’s not just the teens. So often we let our own lives get out of balance. Whether it is over committing ourselves, being overworked or spending too much time with the things that we use to distract us from our busy lives. There is almost always something that we are giving too much time to, that is unbalancing the rest of our already complicated life equations. Perhaps it is time to sit down with our Teacher and look at how we can balance our own lives. And just as there are guidelines to balancing chemical equations, there are guidelines for getting our own life in balance. Before anything else though, come back to your Guide, put Him first, and He will balance everything else.
But seek first the kingdom of God and all His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6: 33.
Much love in Christ
Heather P